This article is my guide to Biking Etiquette in Mexico City, the largest city in North America. I’ll share all my tips to help you get around in a safe, efficient, and fun way, and beat tons of traffic! The traffic here is ridiculous, but the weather is beautiful for most of the year, except during the rainy season in the summer. So, especially if you are trying to get to Polanco from anywhere else, learning how to bike in CDMX will open up a whole new way of life for you.
I’ve biked 1,500+ km (950 miles) in Mexico City, where I've lived for the last three and a half years. Here’s a screenshot of the statistics from my Ecobici app as of August 2025! Riding bikes is my favorite way to get around and one of the best things about living in Ciudad de México. While I’ve not yet been in a biking accident in CDMX, I have been in two small biking accidents before (one in Palo Alto and one in Philadelphia), so my biking etiquette is one of extreme caution. It’s served me well so far.
My story
I moved to Mexico City in April 2022. Truth be told, I was too afraid to bike the first year I lived here. After being a seasoned biker in London, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, Mexico City felt like a whole other beast. I took some months as a pedestrian to observe the rules of the road. For example, a red light for drivers in Mexico City is more like an amber light for drivers in New York or London. When drivers see one, they often try to speed up and get through the intersection before they get hit by the onslaught of cars coming the other direction.
1. Get Ecobici (vs. getting your own bicycle)
Ecobici is Mexico City’s bikeshare system. An annual membership costs 566MXN pesos ($30.15USD at the time I was writing this), which is an absolute steal if you live anywhere central with access to the bike stations. I’m pretty sure you just need an email address, a phone number, and a credit card to get started.
With the basic plan, which I have, you get unlimited 45-minute rides throughout the city every day. I’ve only ever gone over this 45-minute limit once or twice. But if you’re going for a longer ride, simply redock your bike, wait two minutes, and then start another ride again if you need to keep going in the city. I’ve learned the hard way that Ecobici currently doesn’t go any further south than the start of San Angel, or any further west than Lomas de Chapultepec, but anywhere central you want to go should be covered.
Should you get your own bicycle in Mexico City? It depends. I have never owned a bike here because I love the convenience of short Ecobici trips, and I don’t want to deal with the faff of locking my bike up. However, you should get your own bicycle if you are going to be commuting regularly to an office where you know there is a safe locker. This is especially true if you are working in Polanco. The traffic in and out of Polanco is terrible, and all of the Ecobicis for miles and miles will be taken. So, if you are working in Polanco, be sure to get your own bicycle that you can lock up safely at work. If you’re working in another part of the city, for example, I used to bike from my apartment in La Condesa to my co-working space in La Juarez, you probably don’t need to own a bike. These roads are less traveled for work, which means there should generally be a small number of Ecobicis there.
My friends who own their own bicycles still have an Ecobici membership. They don’t want to miss out on the convenience of short trips, especially if their bike is an expensive, electric Honeywhale that they’d have to lock up. Ultimately, I recommend that anyone who is biking in Mexico City should have their own Ecobici membership.
2. Attend Muevete Ciclovía on Sundays to practice
If you’re feeling nervous about hitting the main roads immediately, be sure to attend the Muevete Ciclovía that happens every Sunday in the city. It’s my favorite initiative, and it’s basically a giant bike path where major roads, like Paseo de La Reforma, go car-free and open to pedestrians, runners, roller skaters, and bikers. This happens every Sunday morning until 2 pm, and it’s so fun! You can rent an Ecobicis and try to get the lay of the land. I believe they open up the streets in Polanco on the first Sunday of the month, which is great if you want to explore there.
A bike ride in the Muevete is also a great way to see the sights, like the Angel of Independence, and even a quicker way than driving to Centro on the weekends. Or you can check out the Art Deco buildings around Condesa, or even visit Frida Kahlo’s House, as they’ve extended Ecobici to Coyoacán, and get some tacos or street food along the way. They also allow bikes in Chapultepec Park, which is obviously safer than attempting to bike on the road for the first time. For any kind of taco bike tour, they usually stick to pretty safe roads. When you’re biking, be sure to look out for the small, yellow plinths on the ground. These are your bike lanes! Muevete is a great time to start to get familiar with them.
3. Relearn the rules of the road
I like to say that driving in Mexico City is “controlled chaos”: it can feel chaotic, but once you relearn the rules of the road, the chaos totally makes sense, and it’s strangely predictable.
Last month, my sister, who lives in London, got a ticket for going through a red light. I laughed when I heard this. This would almost never happen in Mexico City. As I mentioned above, red lights are more like amber lights here. Vehicles run red lights all the time. As a pedestrian or a biker, you need to retrain yourself to wait for 3 seconds (one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi) after your light turns green to let the dregs of the last direction of cars or motorcyclists sail through the intersection, despite their light being red. It is very important to stay safe, pause, and wait for all the remaining traffic to pass before you fling yourself out into the center of the road. If in doubt, pause and proceed with caution.
Why do cars run red lights in Mexico City, and do all other kinds of illegal driving? I think it’s because the Mexican police and the traffic wardens are notoriously corrupt and are focused on other things. They’re trying to make money by extorting drivers for not having perfect documents and even taking advantage of cars that have broken down. This is a true story: my friend, whose car broke down on a major road, was fined by the police for being in the wrong place, even though his car was literally broken down. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for him, and he ended up moving abroad.
Why don’t the police ticket drivers for running red lights? I think it’s because the police run red lights themselves. Police cars are aggressive drivers in Mexico City, as are the public buses. Yes, it’s a topsy-turvy world we live in here: the vehicles on the road devoted to public service are often the ones who endanger other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians the most. I found it particularly shocking when I moved here to see the public electric bus routes running the red lights. So, if you’re biking and you see a bus or a police car, slow down and let them pass, no questions asked.
The good news for you about the controlled chaos is that you will often not be the only person biking or moving something on the side of the road. Many locals bike or even drive their own movable carts of tamales, churros, ice cream, boxes of fresh meat straight from the market, you name it. So, in general, drivers will be alert to random carts and cyclists, but only if they can see you or hear you.
4. Be seen. Be heard.
If you’re biking, it’s time to draw as much attention to yourself as possible! This means wearing fluorescent gear and using your bell…a lot!
Surprisingly, fluorescent biking gear is rare in Mexico City. This means that if you wear anything fluorescent, it will help you stand out even more, which is what you want. I have a fluorescent yellow helmet and some adjustable fluorescent bands that I wear all the time. You can see some pictures here.
My other big recommendation is to use your bell! This is my favorite and most important tip as a biker. Unlike in road-rage New York or London, using your bell or horn in Mexico City is not rude at all. It is a way to alert drivers and motorcycles to your presence. I use my bell excessively, almost slamming on it about 15 times every time I pass a car that’s on but waiting on the street. You need to make your presence known, especially as you are crossing any intersections.
Using your bell or horn is part of the city's controlled chaos, but it’s also courteous. If a driver is running a red light late at night, they might quickly tap their horn a couple of times to alert any oncoming vehicles they might not be able to see of their presence.
Of course, as a cyclist, not all Ecobicis have working bells, so be sure to find one that does. It’s a huge handicap not to have a working bell on an Ecobici. Depending on where I’m going, I will use my bell about 100+ times on any given journey. I use it when I’m passing a car that has its engine running. I’ll use it when I bike through an intersection. I’ll use it when pedestrians are waiting at a crosswalk, and they don’t realize they’re about to walk into a bike lane. I’ll use it sometimes when I pass cars that are parked at a traffic light, as I’m trying to get out in front, or when I see a car up ahead that is backing out of its driveway. You need to make sure people know you are there.
Also, when I get to a red light on my bicycle, I always go up in front of the cars. If there is a bike lane, I usually stick to the bike lane, but if I’m crossing straight ahead at the intersection, I always go in front of the cars to make sure they can see me, in my fluorescent gear, lol. And then I try to cross the intersection quickly once the light turns green to get to the safety of the bike lane on the other side.
5. Be humble. Be cautious.
Biking in Mexico City is not the time to have any kind of entitlement or ownership over right and wrong. While CDMX is an ancient city, cars rule the road, and the downside to having corrupt police is that you really have no rights or anyone to back you up with the rule of law. In Mexico City, people often settle issues like car accidents amongst themselves. So, trust me, you don’t want to cause any fights or argue with anyone, because you really have no idea who you could be dealing with. I’ve seen traffic disputes result in people hitting each other, or a whole posse of people come and back up on the guy who was fighting with a guy in the truck. The posse ended up slashing his tires, right in the middle of the road.
Sure, it can be frustrating to have a driver cut you off in CDMX. But if you have this attitude, you’ll be exhausted pretty soon. I always assume that if a driver comes too close to me while I’m biking, it’s because I didn’t alert them enough to my presence. Of course, there are the occasional asshole drivers. But with those people, especially, stop and think to yourself: Do I really need to aggravate this person? Do I really want to mess with them and have to argue in Spanish? The answer is no. If you do get cut off when biking, just slow down, go around them, and be grateful that they were driving at 15 MPH instead of 50: otherwise, you’d definitely be squished.
Be deferential to cars as much as possible if you want to live. Many cars whizz around corners without checking the bike lane. The car is much bigger, faster, and stronger than you, and you have a lot to lose. So, if I’m crossing an intersection, and the cars are whizzing up behind me, I always let them go first. Always. The faster the cars are going, the less likely they are to see you. Caution and humbleness on your end is the way.
6. Stick to the bike lanes where possible
The bike lanes in Mexico City are pretty great. They’ve managed to draw the line using giant yellow bricks, which definitely deters drivers from hitting them or going into the bike lane. This was definitely the problem when there were nothing but flimsy bike lane lines in San Francisco. You can get around most of the city with a good bike lane or a pedestrian walkway.
My last tip is to make sure you download the IQ Air App to make sure the levels of air pollution aren't too high in the city while you are biking.
So, there you have it! That’s everything you need to know about how to bike safely and enjoyably in Mexico City. I hope you found my tips helpful and informative. Have fun, and let me know how your biking in CDMX goes! Good luck!
